Saturday, September 19, 2009

As most of my followers know I am doing a massive remodel on the home that we bought several years ago. So I am back at that task to keep myself occupied.

A leak popped in the kitchen and a tile cracked so I decided it was time that all of the ugly crap that I hated about the kitchen had to go and be updated. So we gutted the kitchen about 3 days ago...and today all that is left is doing a small area of grout and I am beaming proud. I cannot give you pictures today because the Blackberry was fried in the last power surge(that is what I get for not charging it on a surge protector). The hubby brought me a G1 and it is at Tigo being unblocked for use here in Honduras.

I went to Multiceramicas and bought the tile and stiletto border and a new stainless sink to match the LG refrigerator that my husband bought me two Christmas' ago. In my efforts the stove got chunked too...It was on its last leg so I will have to purchase another one and for the meantime I am using a 4 burner table top that I bought when we came for emergencies. This was an emergency since I refused to put that ugly stove back in my new and beautiful kitchen. Almost 8 years ago my husband had a carpenter make me custom mahogany cabinets and doors for the house. I am glad he picked that wood, because they are beautiful to this day and the cabinets really shine with the new tile in the kitchen.

I promise to provide pictures soon...my kitchen is not huge, but it is quaint and since almost all of our children are grown we really do not need the huge kitchen anymore. My youngest is now 13 and working really hard on making it to 14 without his mom strangling him(just kidding...but he is going through that stage of I know more than you do and you truly do want to ring their necks when they reach that moment in life). My oldest is gone already at 19 he thinks he is a man and joined the military. Boy do they grow up fast.

Now for what is left in the remodel. We got a little behind schedule because last year a major storm hit and a tornado removed our tile roof making it a sudden need to replace it with aluminum..it finally was clear to me why everyone had metal roofs that are bolted down to metal frames. Hurricanes and tornadoes.

We still have to paint, but I am waiting on that for last. I can deal with the unpainted house while I work busily on the rest. We bought this house in a foreclosure from BanPais and it was really only a shell when we got it. The second story was incomplete and there were no windows, iron bars, garage door, gate, doors, no kitchen and no bathrooms. Now we have two bathrooms.

My favorite thing in Honduras is tile so I have made it my duty to tile everything that can be tiled in the house. I still have to tile the upstairs as right now it still has the terrazo tiles except in the upstairs bathroom where I put what is known as azulejo in a dark marine blue that is gorgeous and a designed blue floor that looks something like the India tiles you see. I believe I have pictures of this on here somewhere. I still want to move the ' pila' to the upstairs patio where it is outside. I do not like it in the house even if it is next to the washing machine. We are going to put new sidewalks outside and an entry to the garage that is tiled with the broken pieces in a mosaic fashion. I still have to finish painting the iron guardrail on the stairs and redo the laundry room floor. Our patio is in bad need of new ceramic. We are going to paint the ceilings though probably before we do any other work because my husband and I just recently had the sheetrock put in on the ceilings to replace the damage caused by the tornado when it ripped of the roof and that looks kind of ugly unpainted. We have to paint the entire house. As we speak they are reupoulstering my living room furniture and I am thinking about asking for a permit so we can cut one of the mahogany trees on the property so that we can build bedroom furniture out of it for the master bedroom and our son's room. We also have to replace five windows that are the old crank out style instead of the sliding glass windows like in the states. I hate the burgler bars on the windows, but I am getting used to them now and do not feel so much like I am in jail anymore. My house is certainly larger than many houses but there are tons of houses larger than it. It is 240m2 and the average house in Honduras is from 80-100m2 which is pretty small. My house is closer to the average size of a house in the US. What I really hate is we do not have a yard since we are in the city of San Pedro Sula the lots are really small and it is extremely rare to have any yard at all.

I could have opted for a newer house that already had everything done, but I am a rescuer by nature. I was the kid that brought home all the strays. I don't think it would have felt as much mine either as this house does. This house belongs to me and has become part of who I am. As you walk through it you can pretty much figure out who I am.

Here are some pictures for those who have not been up to date on the activities.
(the kitchen pictures will come in a few days)

We are also going to put in a hot water heater one of these days. I am terrified of electric wires in my shower while water is flowing. My husband thinks it is funny that I am scared of the doucha shower heads and they really do not get hot like I like the showers, but I am getting used to the lukewarm showers and sometimes they feel good with the heat around here.